Jimmy Carter, you’re the father of the Islamic Nazi movement. You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage. You’re the runner-in-chief.

Bill Clinton, you played ring around the Lewinsky while the terrorists were at war with us. You got us into a fight with them in Somalia, and then you ran from it. Your weak-willed responses emboldened the killers. Each time you failed to respond adequately they grew bolder, until 9/11.

John Kerry, dishonesty is your most prominent attribute. You lied about American Soldiers in Vietnam. Your military service, like your life, is more fiction than fact. You’ve accused our Soldiers of terrorizing women and children in Iraq. You called Iraq the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time, the same words you used to

describe Vietnam. You’re a fake. You want to run from Iraq and abandon the Iraqis to murderers just as you did the Vietnamese. Iraq, like Vietnam is another war that you were for, before you were against it.

John Murtha, you said our military was broken. You said we can’t win militarily in Iraq. You accused United States Marines of cold-blooded murder without proof. And said we should redeploy to Okinawa. Okinawa John? And the Democrats call you their military expert. Are you sure you didn’t suffer a traumatic brain injury while you were off building your war hero resume? You’re a sad, pitiable, corrupt and washed up politician. You’re not a Marine sir. You wouldn’t amount to a pimple on a real Marines butt. You’re a phony and a disgrace. Run away John.

Origins: Command Sergeant Major J.D. Pendry served in the U.S. Army (not the U.S. Marine Corps, as stated in some altered versions of this piece) from 1971 to 1999 and is the author of the 2001 book The Three Meter Zone: Common Sense Leadership for NCOs. In 2006 he penned an e-mail entitled “On Your Hands,” which has been widely circulated on the Internet under a variety of titles (including “Axis of Idiots,” “No Punches Pulled Here,” and “Insight of a Sergeant Major”) and has since been altered by others.

In a May 2008 blog entry on his (now inactive) web site, J.D. Pendry explained his original motivation for writing the piece:

[“On Your Hands” was] a mailing I sent to my private email list on June 24, 2006. I don’t feel a need to explain myself, but I wrote this right after someone sent me pictures of the mutilated bodies of two young American Soldiers. Since the original posting, this letter has made a few laps around the net and been posted in many different places. Other than to my private email list, I originally posted it at Free Republic and it’s been posted there several more times and to a Geocities Website that I once maintained. I’ve even received inquiries from people that heard it read on radio programs. There’s been some minor editing of my original post as it’s traveled around and I’ve seen it renamed several times. Frankly I prefer my title because my title is my point.

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